As noted in a front page
open thread, new documents indicate that Alito has stated that he does not believe that the Constitution protects abortion. His exact
words: "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."
In my mind, this is the signal that it is time for Dems to start hammering on Alito.
There was some discussion in the open thread of the proprietary of talking filibuster now. Some argued that it is premature. That Dems should be using this time to educate themselves about the nominee and basically bide their time until the hearings. While I agree that the word "filibuster" shouldn't be used yet, I disagree with waiting for the hearings to engage in a full scale attack on Alito.
Even though the hearings don't start until January we need to be pounding on Alito starting NOW. It is going to take relentless negative press for a filibuster of Alito to be politically feasible with the American public. That bad press will also need to be sustained for it to sufficiently influence the public.
We can't wait for the hearings to start. By the time momentum gathers against Alito it might very well be too late. Now, that doesn't mean that Dems should be saying they will filibuster now. The word filibuster should be reserved for after the hearings. That way Dems can say, "we gave Alito every opportunity to sufficiently address the American public's concerns. But it is clear that, as we had feared, he is an activist judge who will legislate from the bench. His own statements indicate that he will also vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. We have no choice but to filibuster."
That won't work unless public opinion has already started to turn against Alito. That's why now is the time to pounce.
64% of Americans believe that Alito should not vote to overturn Roe. Yet, according to the same poll, only 30% think that he should not be confirmed. Well, now we have a smoking gun statement that, if relentlessly repeated over the next couple months, should dramatically increase the number of Americans against Alito.
This is also a great time because it allows us to focus on abortion (the most controverisal issue regarding a Supreme Court nomination) early on. That helps Dems because it fires up the base to work on messaging against Alito. With a coordinated anti-Alito message, Alito's numbers will start to sink. That's when Dems hammer him on other issues - like his conflict of interests in the Vanguard case. After hearing so much about Alito's judicial activism and anti-Roe stance, people will then be predisposed to take more stock in the negative stories that come out on Alito around the time of the hearings. And the path to a filibuster will be as clear as it will ever be.